


My Goodnight Girl

by Wrappedbubble



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Let's stoke this fire and let it burn hot and bright, Outlaw, Outlaw love, Slow Burn, Smut, grateful Arthur, one good turn deserves another!, rated mature for future chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2019-10-25 15:51:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17728187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wrappedbubble/pseuds/Wrappedbubble
Summary: When an outlaw bursts into her school room, miss Katherine abandons all of her own preconceived morals to help save him from the men that want to kill him.That sort of thing deserves repaying and Arthur is determined to let her know just how grateful he is.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who is reading this. It was thought up while I was lying on the floor of my baby's room so she could have a decent nap. The first chapter was written on my phone lying there. 
> 
> The title is from the Wet Wet Wet song and it will be an inspiration for the following chapters. 
> 
> For those of you sticking with this little fic of mine, please brace for mutual longing and a hint of angst later on. 
> 
> Xxx

Miss Katherine dropped the chalk that she had been writing with the moment that the man had burst into her school room. It hit the floor and broke into pieces, one rolling to a stop at the tip of his boot. 

The children sat at makeshift desks in front of her looked more curious than frightened at the intrusion, some of the boys went so far as to look impressed, all open mouths and eyes already full of imagining a daring and dangerous back story for this man. 

Lifting her gaze from his boot and her chalk she took in the sight of him. Dusty, dirty, clothes stained with what could be blood, and guns hanging from just about anywhere they possibly could about his person. A hat with a bullet hole in the center of it. And a face that she took in with sombre relief as it wore an expression of stress as opposed to murder. 

"Excuse me sir," she said. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave my school room. I don't take kindly to outlaws interrupting my lesson. "

"Forgive me miss," He said, polite as could be but in as much as a hurry as his barged entrance had been. "It would seem that some gentlemen are a might upset with me so i would greatly appreciate it if there was somewhere I might hide here."

 

"I have my class to consider sir," she replied. "I hardly think harbouring outlaws is something that I want them running home to tell their parents about. Now I must insist that you leave. "

She moved towards him, hand out ready to push him towards the door when he suddenly hushed her, reaching out to hold her hands, to stop and still her. A commotion was picking up out on the main street, and judging by the volume it was getting closer. 

"Morgan! " a man's voice yelled from outside. Katherine looked at the outlaw and mouthed 'you I assume? ' at him. He tipped his hat at her by way of reply. 

"Arthur Morgan! " a second voice called. "Dead or alive don't matter to us."

Arthur leaned close in to Katherine, his lips at her ear to whisper closely. "I would really prefer alive so i beg you miss, anywhere I can hide."

She rolled her eyes and motioned to the children to stay where they were, hoping that they had the sense to do as they were bid, then pulled Arthur behind her and out of the classroom, hearing the scrape of every child's chair on the floor as they ran immediately to the window to watch what was happening outside. 

She pulled him along quickly, reaching the door at the back of the school house, the one that led to their play ground, a small vegetable patch and an outhouse. Opening it as much as she dared before it began to creak on it's hinges she stood back and pointed to the outhouse. 

"It's the only place I've got. I meant what i said about outlaws in my lessons." She said before giving him a decent shove towards the outside and returning to the children.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I borrowed a little wound based inspiration from the game but it's not a spoiler.

Katherine hurried back to the classroom in time to see the backs of two men entering, all shouts and terror. Rounding the doorway she hit the floor along with the children all at the same time as one of the men rasied his gun and put a bullet through the blackboard. This time there was no doubting that the children were more than terrified. Cries and screaming and the ringing refrain of the gunshot pounded in her ears as she pushed herself back up to her feet.

"Sir please," she said to the man who had fired the shot. "You are terrifying the children and you are terrifying me. What do you need with us?" She tried to keep her voice calm and level. In comparison to the outlaw these two were devils to his veritable angel.

"We want Arthur Morgan," the other man said to her whilst the first lazily cocked his gun and sneered at the children. "We know he's somewhere in these parts and you would be a sensible girl if you told us whatever you know."

"I'm just trying to teach..." she began, motioning to the children, stopping as he raised a gun and pointed it at her face. 

"Teaching, but somehow coming into the room after us?" he said. "So teaching from where exactly?"

Her mouth worked around silence as she tried to get some words, any words out, achieving nothing but noises that sounded stupid and panicked to her own ears. The man lowered the gun to his side and sighed, advancing on her and grabbed her knotted bun of hair, pulling back roughly. Her hands flew to his to try to pry them away, scratching at his skin and pulling his fingers. She could hear some of the children crying harder.

"Alright!" she shouted and the pressure on her hair let up. He did not let go but he relaxed the grip a little. "Alright. I'll show you where I was. But you won't like it."

"Oh I'll be the judge of that," he said and pushed her forward by the head, out of the classroom, the other man following along after them. 

She walked back towards the door that she had just shoved Arthur through and sent up a swift prayer that he would be in the outhouse and hidden if what she was going to say was going to work. 

"Just through here," she said, opening the door. The man kept hold of her hair as they stepped outside. 

"And what," he said "is just through here exactly because I ain't seeing much of anything of interest to me. Least of all I ain't seeing Arthur Morgan." He raised his voice to shout out the name.

"I was in there," she motioned to the outhouse. The second man starting to walk towards it, stopping as she yelled out to him.

"No!" She shouted. "I was cleaning up. You do not want to go in there. The dysentery has carried off three of my students in the last month." At that the man holding her hair dropped his hold on her and stepped back. As though she herself was diseased. "Some of them don't even have both of their parents anymore. If I don't do this for them then who will?" she said.

The two men exchanged a glance, looks that she could not read, could not tell what they were thinking. They both raised their guns and each shot once into the outhouse before turning to her. She held her nerve and held their gaze, now hoping that Arthur had taken none of her advice whatsoever and was instead half way towards the mountains that provided the backdrop to her little town. A fortuitous sound like gunshot rang out from the mountains. She was well aware that a dry and hot summer was making the rocks explode but if they had the sense that she credited them with, they would not know this.

"Go back to your children Miss," said the man who had been holding her not a minute before. "And if I find out that you were lying to me then I can promise that more than three of them will be carried off within the month." She stood her ground, silent until they had left and were out of sight. She glanced back at the outhouse and hesitated before turning back to the school house and dismissing the children. It was at least an hour too early but most of them would have a mother at home even if their father was out at work. Those that didn't knew well enough to play out until one or other of their parents came home. She picked up a pencil and a piece of paper from her desk, tucked a book under her chin and picked up her chair to carry them all outside. She set herself up, sitting there where she could see the towns small main thoroughfare if it even deserved that name, and the outhouse. Eyes darting between the two for any movement. For half an hour she pretended to write or read, all the while doing nothing because the trembling of her hands refused to let her make any meaningful headway with either. 

Once the sky began to darken a little she picked up chair and book, her pencil and paper and took them back to the class room before going back outside. Steeling herself for what she would find she opened the door to the outhouse, expecting to see the body of Arthur Morgan and to have no idea just how to explain this unusual situation away. 

"Miss," he grunted, making her jump. In the darker confines of the small hut she could see him bent double, neckerchief bundled up in one red and sticky hand, pressing it to side. "A little help if you please."

She held out her hand and he took it, easing himself upright, the movement pulling at the wound in his side. Nothing too serious he knew that much. It had somehow missed anything too vital but it hurt like hellfire despite that and he needed to stop the bleeding.

"I have no experience with bullet wounds," she said.

"I do," he replied, and she bit back the retort that of course he did. "I would appreciate the use of your chair and a candle please." 

She nodded and he followed her back to the class room. She watched as he eased off his gun belts and bandoliers, pushed his braces off his shoulders and peeled his shirt up over his head. She averted her gaze but had seen enough to know that she had been correct. This man most definitely had experience with bullet wounds. And knife wounds too by the looks of it. He sat in the chair and felt around the edge of the wound, hissing as he touched the ragged flesh. Remembering what he had asked for she picked up a candle and placed in on her desk for him, wondering just why he would need it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches, striking one on his shoe to light the candle. In silence she saw him pick a bullet from a bandolier and wrench it apart, pouring the gun powder on to the wound.

"Miss if you would be so good as to stand behind me and cover my mouth with your hands?" he asked.

"Um, yes." she said, eyebrows drawn together in confusion as she move to stand behind him. He leaned his head back and pushed it against her stomach. 

"Good and tight now, you hear?" he said. She pushed down some, the closest contact that she had ever had with a mans mouth before. "You're going to have to do better than that." He said beneath her palm. She pushed harder, feeling the weight of him against her. He raised the candle to the gunpowder which flashed and hissed angrily as he twisted involuntarily beneath her hands, bellowing out into her palms. She pressed harder and harder as he raged against the pain before falling still, a cold sweat across his brow. She could feel that she was shaking again but was unsure whether the movement was coming from him or her. 

He reached back and took her hands away from his face, holding them in his. Eyes shut. "Thank you," he murmured.

She nodded her head although he could not see, still as a statue with his eyes shut, only the rise and fall of his chest to show that his experience had not killed him. 

She kept hold of his hands.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this is going to be a way longer slow burn than I'd originally thought. But I'm having fun with these two! Thanks to all who have read and left kudos. If you have any comments then please feel free. 
> 
> I might have to update tags as I go!

Katherine cannot be certain just how long she had stood there for, holding Arthurs hands and letting him rest his head against her stomach. She let her thumbs gently rub back and for over his knuckles by way of comfort. She was no fool and it was obvious that this was a hard man, a dangerous man who had clearly been stood the wrong side of a weapon on more than one occasion. But he had been nothing other than polite to her, putting himself through a pain that would see lesser men brought low to their knees with the shock of it. Feeling him pull away from her she let go of him with a reluctance that surprised her. 

"Are you alright?" she whispered, as though something would be broken if she spoke too loud.

"I'll be fine," he said, finally opening his eyes to look at her. He pushed himself up in the chair with a small grunt of discomfort. "Well miss..."

"Katherine," she said. "Miss Katherine Lane."

"Well miss Lane. You have been more than generous to me and lord knows I do not deserve it, so I will be on my way."

She looked out of the windows and back to Arthur.

"It's almost dark out," she said.

"Oh I ain't afraid of the dark," he said.

"No, of course not," she said. For reasons that she was not willing to delve into at that moment she felt an overwhelming need to keep him close by, just for a little longer. "But that doesn't mean that you need to go running around in it after getting shot. I'm taking you back to my house."

"You are, are you?" he asked, an amused smile on his face as he rose to put his shirt back on, along with his array of weapons, bullets, and bags. The bloodied neckerchief he shoved into a pocket. "People will talk."

"People always talk, and anyway it's perfectly respectable seeing as how I live with my Daddy."

"Ah well there you go. Daddy's ain't the type of men to like people like me very much."

"Mr Morgan," she said crossly, stopping him short in the process of fastening his last gun belt around his hips. "I have harboured what is clearly an outlaw in a school house of all places..."

"Outhouse actually," he interrupted with a grin.

"Fine, an outhouse," she huffed. "I have had two incredibly angry, armed and dangerous men threaten me, my students and you. I have watched them shoot you and I have watched you practically blow yourself up just to heal up the wound. I held your mouth and stopped you screaming out and now I am taking you home." Arthur looked at her as she finished her speech, thinking that this woman was more than just a school teacher in a back-of-beyond town that barely earned that title. He let out a low whistle.

"You may be unarmed but that tongue of yours could be mighty dangerous I reckon," he said, hands up in defeat. "You win Miss Lane. Lead the way," he sweeps an arm towards the door, motioning for her to take the lead.

"So just you and your Daddy then," he said as they walk out in the cool evening air.

"Has been for about as long as I can remember," she said. "I have some very small recollections of my Mother but no photograph. No one with a camera passed that way back then. But Daddy likes to talk about her still and he paints some beautiful pictures with his words."

"Must be where you get it from then." he said.

"Get what from?"

"Your way with words,"

"Everything I know, everything I have got comes from him," she said. "I look after him now. He's all but blind, not much left until he's totally gone in his eyes. I hope that I won't regret telling you that Mr Morgan."

"Your Daddy sounds like a fine man Miss Lane," he said. "If I had had a father like him maybe I would have turned out better. Mind you, if my daddy had been half way to blind then maybe I'd have shot him in the front rather than the back." Katherine stayed silent at this admission, a part of Arthuirs past so personal that he had not expected to say it and she had not expected to hear it. "I'm sorry," he said, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck, feeling expeosed without the neckerchief that always sat there. "I should not have said that to you. My father was a bad man Miss Lane. Very bad. The worst sort of man. Still, I expect to see him in hell when I get there. My soul will be paying off debts there long after I am cold in my grave."

"It's not much further," she said, unsure of what to say to his past. She wanted to know more, she wanted to know less. She hardly knew at all what she wanted, but even such a big man such as he was she felt that she wanted to continue to help him as best she could. Arthur stayed silent, not knowing whether she was avoiding the issue due more to fright than sadness. He could see a small light a way off in the distance as they walked further and further from the towns centre and guessed that it must her house.

"That it?" he asked.

"That's it," she said. 

They walked the rest of the way in silence, until Katherine called out as they approached the small fron porch.

"That you Katherine?" a mans voice called back from inside.

"It's me Daddy," she said, pushing the door open. Arthur walked in behind her, feeling too large for the small room. It was subtly lit by one small lamp and the fire that was burniing in the hearth. There was very little furniture; a table with one chair and two other chairs close to the fire. He could see that they did all of their cooking over that fire and could smell some sort of stew in it. 

"I started the dinner sweetheart," said her father. "I dread to think what it'll taste like." The old man paused and peered around Katherine where she stood just in from the doorway, Arthur behind her. "You've brought company?" he moved to the fire to stir the pot. "I don't know how far this will stretch but let's see what we can do."

"This is Mr..." she began, only to be interrupted by Arthur.

"Callahan," he said, moving past her to shake the mans hand. "Arthur Callahan."

"Well, if Katherine thinks to bring you to our table then I'm sure you're most welcome Mr Callahan." 

"Mr Callahan met with a hunting accident just outside of town Daddy, came looking for help and found my class room." Arthur watched in some awe as yet another lie slid easily from her lips.

"Well then eat up son," said Mr Lane. "Can you serve up Katherine? Easier to miss my aim with those bowls as opposed to this pot. "

Arthur, Katherine and Mr Lane spent a pleasant supper time in one another's company before Arthur stood to excuse himself outside for the night. He was more than used to sleeping under the stars and he did not want to push himself upon them more than he already had done. He quickly brushed aside Mr Lane's insistence that he stay on their floor by the fire, but settled on the suggestion that Katherine would fetch him a pillow and blanket. 

Katherine, arms full of linen, met him in the patch of scrub and dust that served as their back yard. A few shoots were trying their best to grow, the chicken run was empty and he hoped that they were in the coop for the night. He didn't like the thought that this might be all they had. 

"Are you sure you won't stay indoors? " she asked him, pushing the linen into his arms. 

"Very sure," he said. "This is more than good for me. You've both been more than good for me. " he shuffled his feet, marking a line back and for in the dust. 

"Well then. " she said, stood still and looking at him. He reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips to place a light kiss across her knuckles. 

"Goodnight Miss Lane," he said. 

She went back to the house, checked the fire was safe, and kissed her father on the forehead, bidding him a goodnight before going up to her room. She did not light a candle, not carry a lantern so as not to cast a silhouette but stood for a while as close to the window as she dared, watching Arthur Morgan bed down for the night within the confines of their little back yard before undressing and crawling into bed herself. It might just be a ricketty old fence they had out there but knowing that there was some small barrier between him and the world made her feel much better.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well hi there pretty girl, " Katherine murmured to the large grey horse that she found standing in her back yard. "I was expecting to find someone else here this morning. "

The horse pawed the the ground slightly, trampling down a few shoots as she did so. Katherine frowned at the animal. 

"I'm sure they weren't going to be good carrots anyway." She said. "Now then, lovely big thing like you, who do you belong to? " 

The horse was saddled and carried a bed roll and saddlebags that clearly had things in them. She reached out slowly to take hold of the horses reigns carefully. 

"Hush now," she murmured. "My but you are well behaved. " No sooner had the words left her mouth than the horse began to lip at her shoulder, chewing a little on the fabric and covering it with horse spit. 

"I see you've met Lucy." She turned and was met with the sight of Arthur coming around the corner of the house, having obviously found their water butt and given his face and head a good dousing. 

"Well that explains the horse in my yard," she said, easing Lucy's mouth away from her shoulder and letting the horse mouth at her hand instead. 

"She likes you, " he nodded towards them. 

"The feeling's mutual." She said with a smile. "Where did she show up from? "

I went and found her this morning," he stepped up to Lucy and gave her a hefty pat on the neck. "You're my best girl," he said to her. "We sometimes get separated but we always find each other again don't we girl. "

"It's a pretty name, Lucy," she said. "And she's got the prettiest eyes I ever did see on a horse. " She scratched her between the eyes on a patch of white hair that stood out from the grey. Arthur was busying himself around them both, checking in the bags, rearranging weapons and supplies while Katherine let Lucy press her big head up against her.

"Time I was heading on out Miss Lane," Arthur said. Katherine felt a strange bottoming out in the pit of her stomach. Of course he was leaving. She had come outside to tell him that she was headed to the school house and she never expected to see him again. But it still felt hollow and unkind to be waving him off so soon. He swung up in to the saddle, seating himself like he was born to sit a horse. 

"I brought you this, " she said, handing him up a paper parcel. "It's only a little but i scraped up what was left of the stew and put it between a couple of bits of bread. Just don't leave it too long or it'll all soak through. " She knew she was talking too much, delaying his departure. 

"Thank you. And thank your father for me too," he said, adjusting his hat and gathering the reigns. "One day Miss Lane I am determined to repay your kindness to me." He turned Lucy in the yard and gave her a hard kick to get her over the fence. She ran a little way off before he turned to face Katherine, raising his hand to her. 

She waved back to him and watched as he turned Lucy to gallop, kicking up puffs of dust as they went.

***

Katherine tried. At the very least she could say that she tried. She taught her classes, cared for her father, tended the garden and looked after the chickens. She did everything exactly as she had done so for years on end. But Arthur Morgan had burst in and ignited a fire that she had no idea was even kindling. So it was that on the night of the town's monthly dance she had dutifully pinned her hair up and dressed in her second best, always saving the best for church. 

"You look pretty as a picture," Mr Lane said. 

"Daddy," she warned him off with her tone of voice. 

"Alright alright you win," he said. "You look beautiful I suppose to a man that can see straight."

She jabbed the last pin into her hair and surveyed herself in the small square of mirror that she kept over the fire place. Then she sighed. 

"You're missing him aren't you my girl."

"Missing who daddy?" She asked, feigning ignorance.

"Mr Callahan," he said. 

"Now then how could I miss someone I barely knew? " she said, pulling her shoulders back and turning from the mirror. "Is there anything you need before I go? "

"I just need you to have fun, " he said. "And if you bring back any talk about the town then that would be most welcome." 

Katherine bent to her father where he sat on his chair by the fire, and kissed his cheek. 

"Don't stay up if you get tired, I'll not stop late though," she said.

She left the house, the small lamp burning outside to help her navigate up to the door in the dark. 

"Where are you Arthur?" she whispered into the night air.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's let them have a little bit of fun. Only a little bit mind you! Arthur is an upstanding outlaw don't you know! And there will be way more fun to come along the line.

The dance had been fun enough. It usually was. The problem was that Katherine knew everyone in this town where nothing ever happened to anyone and none of the gentlemen interested her, although she knew that she interested some of them. But something had happened and that was the problem. Arthur Morgan had happened and now everything and everyone else seemed pale and dull in comparison. 

She stood just outside the little hall that they held the dance in and pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders to ward off the worst of the evenings chill. 

The door opened behind her, spilling light around her and casting not just her shadow across the ground but someone else's too.

"Miss Katherine!" Called a breathless voice, the lights and shadows disappearing as the door swung shut behind them. "You upped and just disappeared there." 

"I'm sorry Ernest, " she said. "I thought I'd said goodbye to everyone. " She started to walk, allowing herself an unseen roll of the eyes as Ernest fell in step bedside her. 

"Not me, " he said. She allowed the silence to continue, hoping that it might become awkward enough for him to decide that the party was a much warmer welcome than she was giving him. 

"Well no matter, " he said. "I'll walk you on home. "

"Really there's no need," she said. "You go back and enjoy the party." She knew that he was hoping for a walk, an arm linked with his, maybe a kiss on the porch before she went to bed. It was not something that she wanted to encourage.

"Oh I don't mind at all Miss Katherine - " He was cut off by a hand grasping down firmly on his shoulder, holding him in place and not letting him turn around to see who was holding him.

"I think the lady has made it quite clear that she does not want your company."

She did not need to see him to know that it was Arthur. There was no stopping the warm feeling in her chest, the butterflies that leapt up in her stomach at the sound of him. 

"Now why don't you just get on back to that party son?" Arthur guided Ernest back around in a circle and pushed him back in the direction that he had come from, watching with something between amusement and deep annoyance as he skittered back to the dance, feet tripping over themselves as he ran too fast for them to keep up properly. Arthur turned to Katherine and offered his arm which she took with none of the hesitation that she had felt with Ernest. It did not even occur to her not to take it. She wanted to and she knew it. 

"Did you learn those lines from a travelling show or something?" she said, nudging up against him to knock him aside a little. By the light that the moon was casting she could see the edges of his mouth twitching up into a smile. She had missed that smile.

"Something like that," he said. They walked a little further along in companiable silence, both relishing the feel of each other as their sides brushed and their arms nestled together. 

"Arthur?" Katherine said. He hummed in response and looked down at her. She was a good foot shorter than he was and he allowed the thought to cross his mind that he would like to rest his chin on her head while she tucked herself up to him. That she had used his first name instead of calling him Mr Morgan flooded his system with a comforting warmth. "I don't know how this is going to sound but it's been on my mind since you left so I think maybe if I just out and say it then I can stop turning it over in my head for a while. Either way, you like it, you don't, it'll be said and maybe there will be some relief in that."

"Alright," he said. "I'm listening."

"I missed you," she said, getting it out before they reached her house because she knew that her father would have waited up for her. He always did.

Arthur stopped walking and stopped her along with him, keeping her arm linked in his and turning her to face him with his free hand.

"Every sensible part of me knows that I ought to be telling you that there is no way that I am letting you get involved with me, " he said. "I'm an outlaw, and I have done some bad things with some bad people. But I know enough of you to know that you know your own mind. You're the cleverest, smartest, most quick witted person I think I have ever known. So if you missed me then I reckon you must have had good reason."

He watched her as she closed her eyes in relief at what he had said. She was not being rejected. She was not being ridiculed. She was not being told what she ought to want or think. So when she felt the first press of his lips to hers she leaned into it to press back. She had no room in her mind to overthink her first kiss because she knew that it was right for her. She felt her shawl slip down from one shoulder, and felt Arthur gently lift it back in place without ever taking his lips from hers. His hand reached up to cup her cheek, tilting her head to allow them closer still. Moving with him she let him tease at her top lip with both of his, opening her mouth up a little to him. A warmth pooled low down in her back, low down in her front, so heated and so welcome. She let her hands travel up to curl around the back of his neck, let her fingertips twist in the ends of his hair. The smallest nudge of his tongue just at the very edge of her lips had her following along with the motion, letting him deepen the kiss until it fell back down to a gentler rhythm. Small pressed kisses across her mouth until they slowed to a stop. She stood up on her toes to let her forehead press to his, bringing her hands forward to hold his face. 

"You see who I am so well," he whispered to her.

"I want to know more," she whispered back. She let him pull her in for one more kiss before he let a soft whistle out, calling for Lucy to come to him.

"This is the most calm that I have felt in a very long time," he told her, stepping away as they both heard Lucy's approach. "I'll sleep well tonight."

"I won't sleep at all," she told him. 

He reached for Lucy as she came close and pulled himself up into the saddle. 

"Keep a watch for me Katherine," he said. staring to guide Lucy away. "I'll be coming back to you."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How has a computer character done this to me? Darned if I know but I'll just let the fire it's lit under me carry on burning.

While her days were filled with her teaching at the school, with the cooking and cleaning, the tending of the chickens and their vegetables, Katherine's nights were filled with thoughts of Arthur. 

She found that she was able to take a new interest in her work. Everything felt a little lighter, a little more calm. And despite not knowing when he would show up again, or how he would announce himself, she recognised that her world was forever changed now that he was in it.

He had told her to watch for him so she did, but it did not take up all of her attention. She had seen other women in town entirely consumed with want of a man and it turned them into something else entirely. Impatience and jealousy were always only a heartbeat away. But something about him told her that they had fitted together just as they ought to. She knew he would keep his word.

"Daddy, can you think of anything else we need from the store? " Katherine asked her father as she slung a couple of satchels and her neck. "Speak up or it won't get got!'

"No sweetheart, just make sure you get the good coffee grounds." Her father always insisted on the best coffee and while it got a few town tongues wagging about their spending habits they were the only ones to know that they used the grounds from the bottom of their cups more than once or twice.

She kissed her father on his forehead in the easy habit that they had always had before setting out into the afternoon and the walk that was just long enough to the store that she could lose herself in her own thoughts. She indulged herself in the memories of Arthurs kiss, of his body pressed up to hers and how much she wanted to do that again. She wanted to do more. She had no experience whatsoever beyond that which she had shared with him but nature seemed to be plotting her course just fine for her. She absent mindedly waved and called greetings to the people who called out to her, she moved through the store automatically picking up what she needed and requested the good coffee just like always before heading back home as the sun began to lower in the sky. By the time she reached the front porch the sun was just low enough to throw reds and golds over everything that it touched.

She could hear her father laughing at something and wondered just what he was managing to amuse himself with when she heard another laugh. A deeper one. Hospitality without suspicion was rare enough where they lived which was why her and her father had always welcomed the rare visitors that they had received. It was why, despite all that should have warned her to stay away from Arthur, she had brought him home with her. 

'Arthur,' she thought, as she hurried the last few steps, pulling the satchels from around her neck as she went, opening the door to find her father in his chair and Arthur sat on the floor, knees up and leaning his forearms on them, and leaving the other chair near to the fire for her when she returned.

"You boys think to light the lamps?" she said, pulling things out of her bags and putting them away then busying herself with the lamp. She hardly trusted herself to look at Arthur anbd she knew that she was blushing something furious. When she chanced a look his way she saw that he was looking towards the ground, his hand fidling with his hat to the side of him and a small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. 

"There," she said, putting the lamp up on the mantle shelf and sitting down in her chair. "Isn't that better?"

"Makes very little difference to me," Mr Lane said with a chuckle. "Mr Callahan has brought us a fine side of venison Katherine, we'll be eating well tonight."

"Thank you Arthur," she said, rising to start preparing it. "You will stay to join us won't you?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping you would ask," he smiled up at her before looking quickly away again. Giving gifts was not his strong suit but he had nothing else to offer them and he craved her company. He craved the company of her father too. He wanted more than anything to be here with them and away from outlawing and gunslinging even if for a few precious hours. He loved his gang and would follow them wherever they went. He wanted better for them and for himself but since meeting Katherine it was as though he was tethered somehow to her and moving too far away was pulling uncomfortably on him. Like something would snap and cast him adrift if he carried on following his gang instead of her. He had run with Dutch Van Der Linde and his gang for more than twenty years and other than the occasional job gone wrong he had had very little cause to doubt the leadership of the direction in which they went. Now everything was out of order.

"So no hunting accidents this time then?" she teased him from the small kitchen area. 

"No accidents this time thank you," he said, an amused hint to his tone of voice. 

She smiled and went about her work, cooking them up a well roasted piece of meat and some of the vegetables that Lucy had missed when she had tried to trample them into the ground. By the time that it was all cooked, eaten and cleaned up Mr Lane was openly yawning and it had turned fully from dusk to dark. 

"I should be going," Arthur said, stretching up from the floor, almost filling the small room. 

"You come on back soon son, you hear?" Mr Lane said, standing and reaching a hand in Arthurs direction. Arthur met it half way to prevent him having to grope around for a handshake with his half sight in the dull lamp and firelight. Katherine watched the gesture, her senses filling up with gratitude and amazement that this scarred and dangerous man should have such an affection and gentleness about him.

"I'll see you out," Katherine said, despite that fact that the front door was not more than a couple of feet away leading directly into the main room. Arthur bent to retrieve his hat, and placed it on his head as she opened the door and stepped out ahead of him. He followed closely, so closely that she was aware of him being near enough that they were almost touching. He shut the door behind them and stepped to meet her back with his front, not giving her time to turn to him. She leaned with no hesitation back into this touch, letting his hand twist up her arm to her throat, let him tip her head back to press kisses along her jaw line. 

"Need to do this before I go," he whispered into her ear and turned her in his arms, never letting her go for a moment. She pressed up into him, meeting his kiss with her own, matching her movements to his own, careful not to make a sound so close to the door, aware of her father so near to them. He ran his hands down to her waist and she wished that she did not have to wear a corset, infuriated that it dulled the feeling of his fingertips on her. He squeezed her waist, his large hands fitting around her, eliciting a small gasp from her. He moved his lips to her throat, the gentlest swipe of his tongue across the skin and she let her head fall forward to meet his shoulder. She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him slowly away, looking up at him and tried to put all of her regrets into the look that gave him. Tried to convey the hot wet want that she had for him and hoped that he understood. The time she had before her father wondered what was taking so long was short.

"I don't want to send you away," she whispered. 

"I don't want to go," he murmured into her neck. "You're like a cure to me Katherine. You heal me." She sighed, a small moan along with it. "You keep on keeping that watch out for me girl."

They let go of one another, reluctance and want arcing between them and she stood back to open the door and step inside just as she heard the small whistle that he used to alert Lucy. The sound made her smile as she climbed the stairs to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh. 50 kudos and over 500 hits. Honestly guys thank you so much! This fic is going to be on quite a long time line so i do hope you all stay along for the ride. 
> 
> It's also going to be totally spoiler free!!! 
> 
> And now, let's let Arthur and Katherine have some real fun. I've never written anything like this before so if you have any comments on it I'd be happy to hear them. 
> 
> X

Katherine hauled the bucket of water out from the butt and squinted up at the sky. Summer was on it's way out and clouds were finally starting to gather. She was grateful. In the week since Arthur had last visited her father had taken on a chill in his chest and now he lay in his bed with a fever that was yet to break. She wrang out rags in water to try to cool him and when he could she made him drink but in truth there was little that she could do but wait, pray, and hope for the best. In order to keep her position she had been obliged to continue working but supplies were running low as she spent almost every minute away from the school house at her father's bedside.

She brought the water inside and left it in the bucket on the floor. She finally admitted to herself that she was out of strength now and that getting it up on to the counter was more than she could do. She swilled a piece of cloth around in it and climbed the stairs to her father's bedroom. 

"Just me daddy, " she whispered as she knelt beside his bed and watched her father shudder through the shock of the cold on his forehead, trying but failing to combat the heat emanating from him.

She sat back and watched the small rise and fall of his chest, rubbing a hand across her face and sighed. The day gave way to night as she she dozed where she sat. It was the knocking on the door, getting more insistent that woke her. Making as little noise as possible she stretched up and cast a look over her father, still sleeping before she went downstairs to see who was at the door. 

"Is everything alright, " Arthur asked the moment that she opened the door. "There's no lamps on. " he said. 

"Um, no, " she said, stepping back to let him in. He went straight to the fireplace and began building up wood and kindling, striking a match on his boot to light it. "Daddy's ill. "

Arthur stopped prodding at the fire and turned to her, holding an arm out which she immediately tucked herself until. It was like taking cover from what threatened her, like sheltering. He pulled her until a tight hug

"Is there anything that I can do? " he asked. 

"Just stay, " she said. "Just for tonight. "

"Sure," he said. "I'll get my bed roll from Lucy. "

"You don't have to sleep outside Arthur, you're more than welcome in here. "

"Oh I don't plan on sleeping much anyway, " he said. "You on the other hand are definitely getting some sleep. I'll sit with your father. " He left the house and whistled for Lucy, gathering up what it would need before putting it all down in their back yard, exactly as he had done on that first night.

"Come on then, " he said to Katherine when he was finished. "You lead the way. " He followed her up the stairs and she pointed him through one of only two doors. 

"I'll be just across the hall, "she said. "If anything changes at all..."

"I know," he said. "Goodnight Katherine. "

"Goodnight Arthur."

 

*

It was only two or three hours later when he heard the small creak of Katherine's door opening followed by the soft tread of bare feet down the stairs. He stood and followed her. 

"Can't sleep? " he said. 

"Not really, " she said. "Is everything..."

"He's fine. He's breathing nice and easy. I reckon you can let up worrying a little now. " He took her hand and led her to the back door, out into the cool night air. "Come with me."

Katherine followed him with no hesitation, letting him take her to his bed roll and pull her down to the ground with him. They lay side by side, his hand gently stroking up and down her arm raising goose bumps as it did. 

"Cold? " he whispered. 

"It's not the cold, " she said. 

"Oh my girl, " he murmured before leaning into her and kissing her. She pulled gently at his bottom lip with her teeth and relished in the feel of his hands through only the thin fabric of her night dress. When he sat up she followed and when he pulled her over him to straddle his lap she eagerly let him. They kissed harder, faster and with parted lips eager to meet tongue with tongue and lips with lips.

She pushed his braces down over his broad shoulders and abandoned his kisses to press her mouth to his neck and throat, imitating his movements from the last time they had kissed, knowing how nice it had felt. He moaned at the contact and reached between them to help her undo the buttons on his shirt, pulling back to tug it over his head before she could finish with them all. He grasped around her and pulled her more firmly into his lap and she gasped at the feel of his erection pressing up at her. For a moment she felt totally lost, not knowing what she should do or say. He could sense her sudden nervousness and pulled back a little from her. 

"No need to worry about that, " he whispered to her. "You just let it be and I'll take care of you my girl." He had no hint of embarrassment about him. She recognised in him a man so well connected to the earth and to nature that this situation was indeed nature to him. She nodded, trusting his words entirely. He would take care of her. She wanted to be taken care of. And no one else but Arthur Morgan was going to be enough for her. 

He kissed her again, lighter, more gently and touched at the hem of her night dress, gathering it up in one hand. With his free hand he held her by the wrists and raised her arms above her head. Releasing her wrists she held her arms up and let him pull her night dress up and off, discarding it to one side. He reached back up for her hands and guided her to lie down. He pressed kisses over her lips, and down her neck, he swiped a thumb over her nipple then bent his head to nip at it with his teeth. She arched up into the sharp contact, chasing the feeling with her body. He pressed a palm down on to her stomach to hold her there while he licked across her chest to heh other nipple, denying her that chance to chase his lips and relishing in the small groan that she made. 

He replaced his palm with his mouth and kissed along her stomach, nipping and sucking at her hips as she wriggled in pleasure at the feeling. He brought his hands down beneath her to cup at her bottom, squeezing as he continued to nip at her before dragging his hands further around to her inner thighs, gently easing her legs apart. Kisses trailed hot and wet where his hands had been. 

He reached up and stroked across her hips, searching with his hands for hers, his lips never leaving her skin, and grasping her hands tightly in his as he pressed a kiss to her core. She tipped her head back, hands gripping on to his in encouragement. She had never imagined that her body was capable of feeling this way, had never realised what pleasure a man could give to a woman. When he opened his mouth and used the tip of his tongue to press further she was utterly incapable of preventing the moan escaping from her.

She rocked beneath his tender care of her, as he alternated between teasing at her with the tip of his tongue or pressing firmly with the flat of it. Something she had never felt was building up in her, making her legs feel hot and her stomach muscles pull. She gripped on to him, but could not stop her hands grin flying to his head as that feeling built to a peak that a quickly over came her and forced her to pull him away from her. 

She was breathing like she had run a mile as he crawled back up her body, pressing kisses everywhere that he had on his way down. 

"What was that? " she asked him as he reached her neck. She felt him smile on to her skin. 

"That was me taking care of you," he said. "Anytime you need."

"But what about you? " she asked, pulling him up to meet her lips to his. He watched her for a moment before standing up to pull off his boots and trousers. She took in the sight of him. She knew what men looked like naked but what she had seen had always hung limp between their legs. Not so with Arthur. He lay down next to her again and took her hand in his. 

"If you want to," he said guiding her to place her hand on his member. "I would like that very much." She held it where he had put her and he began to move her hand up and down. He loosened his grip on her as she continued the motion. 

"That feels good," he whispered. She held him a little tighter and was rewarded with a moan. 

"Isn't there something more we should do? " she asked. He reached down and stilled her hand. 

"Only if you want to. "

"I trust you, " she said. Arthur nodded at her and rolled her gently back to press her back to the bed roll. He pushed himself up above her and used one knee to nudge her thigh, which she moved to give him space to settle on to her. 

"Put your legs around my waist," he said, reaching a hand between them to hold himself as she did so. She felt the movement and the nudge of his length against her as he pressed into her. He moved slowly, so slowly into her, watching her for any signs that she might need him to stop. 

She tightened her legs around him as he pushed in as much as he dared before he began to move back again. He set a slow and easy rhythm for her, unable to stop his moan of satisfaction at how sweet she felt around him. 

He moved, increased the pace until he could take it no longer then pulled out of her to spill himself on the bed roll. 

He bent to kiss her again. She gladly offered her mouth up to his. 

"One day Katherine, I'll finish that properly, " he said. "I promise you that. But for now it's safer this way. "

She nodded and held his face in her hands. 

"I trust you, " she said again as he rolled off her and tucked her back to meet his front, holding her tightly. 

"Goodnight girl, " he whispered, reaching over her to pull the bed roll over them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arthur is an outlaw in love. I hope that I am conveying well that these two characters mean a lot to each other faster than they though they would (I have never really written before, and certainly never been moved to do so by a computer game!). They both have big weaknesses. Arthurs lifestyle is not conducive to taking a wife and having a family. And it's too dangerous for him to want Katherine to be mixed up in it. Katherine will always try to do right by her father and that can get in the way of what she wants. But their feelings for one another are, I think, each others biggest strength. In a society where almost everything is out to get you, they have something between them that's stronger than anything else. 
> 
> x

Mr Lane's fever broke on the morning that Katherine awoke in Arthur's arms.

It had still been dark when she had left the comfort of Arthur's arms and gone to check on her father. The night was just still holding sway over day when Arthur rode away from her with a kiss and a promise to return. 

That had been two weeks ago. 

She was not one to worry unduly and she knew that Arthur's lifestyle was more than likely going to be what parted them, be it temporarily or permanently. But she missed him and ached for him more with each passing day, safe at least in the knowledge that he would be feeling the same.

So she busied herself in the same way that she always did. She worked, she cooked, she hauled water, and unusually got interrupted one day on her way back from the general store by the postal clerk jogging to catch up with her after she had walked past the post office. 

"Miss Lane! " he called out, flapping two letters at her as he slowed down to meet her. "Mail for you. "

"Thank you kindly, " she said, taking the letters from him.

"Glad you came past, I know you never come on in so you've just saved me the trip out to your place. Best start dropping by in case you ever get more," he said and turned to walk back to his office. "Good day to you Miss Lane! "

"And to you! " she called after him, looking at the letters in her hand. One very nearly written, the other a more messy hand.

Although she had been sorely tempted to open them there and then she waited until she got home. It was rare to get mail and she wanted to enjoy them. 

"What's that you've got there? " Mr Lane asked when she came through the front door. "Is it letters? "

"I know, " She said. "I'm as surprised as you. Both addressed to me."

"Don't tell me. A long lost relative has passed and is leaving us a fortune!" He said. 

"And what would we find to do with a fortune? " she asked as she opened the neater of the two. She quickly scanned the page then read it back to make sure she had the right of it. "Although a change in fortune if not an actual fortune daddy. Mr and Mrs Carter have written to ask specifically for me to take up a position as governess to their children. "

"You'll take it I hope? " 

"Without a doubt, although I must go to see the mayor about this town's sudden need for a new school teacher. I'll do it tomorrow." She opened the second letter. Her eyes darted straight to the bottom of the page to see his name written there. Arthur. 

"Not more job offers? " her father said. 

"No...um. No. No, it's from Arthur, " she said. "Looks like he'll be away a while is all." She stood and put both letters in to her skirt pocket and busied herself preparing dinner. She was grateful that her father did not ask anything else about her letter.

It was not until later when her father had gone to bed that she took a candle to her room and read the letter again. 

**Katherine,**

****

**We have had to move. I cannot tell you much. I hope you understand. More over I hope this gets to you. I have left it care of the post office to be safe. I would not have you closer to the mess we are in than you need to be.**

****

**I am well, although I'm tired. I never sleep so well as when I have seen you.**

****

**Please remember me to your father and as soon as we are more settled I will come back to you. We are further away though, so it may take longer.**

****

**Your Arthur.**

In a moment of sentimentality she blew out the candle and tucked the letter under her pillow. She kept her hand on it, knowing that Arthur had been holding it most probably only a few days ago. And with her hand still pressing on to the paper she fell asleep.

*

Having addressed the issue of the town's need for a new teacher, Katherine took up her position as governess to Miss Sophia Carter and Master George Carter Junior. The parents of her students had been sorry to see her go. Her students had been much less sorry that her replacement would not arrive for three weeks. 

Her wages were undoubtedly better than they had been at the school house but she was still obliged to walk to and from the Carter's home as a horse was an expense she was unable to account for. A live in position had not been possible as their servants hall was not grand. They were well off but not to the point of having a room for everyone they employed.

It was on the walk back to her house one late afternoon that Arthur found her again. 

"Katherine! " he called out to her, hands cupped around his mouth to carry the sound from a distance so as not to frighten her. He brought Lucy along side her and looked at her. "Well, come on up then. " He said, holding an arm down for her to grasp. 

"My hero, " she smiled, delighting in the feel of the hard muscles of his arm as he helped her up, seating her in front of him. She pushed back up to him relishing in having as much of him touching her as she could manage. 

" You carry on wriggling back like that my girl and riding will get a whole lot harder for me," He said low and in her ear. She swatted back at him

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, " she said before twisting to him, a hand curling around the back of his neck to pull him down to her, meeting his lips to hers, tongues dancing in time with each other's. 

"No," he said pulling back. "It's no good, I'm never going to be able to ride again! " She batted at him again before settling herself in front of him. He held Lucy's reins in one hand and held her hip with the other, tracing gentle circles with his thumb. With a click of his tongue he pushed Lucy into a gentle walk.

"So just why are you out here?" He asked. "It's far enough from home."

"I got a new job," she said. "Governess for a family, the Carter's. Much less chance of some wayward outlaw getting shot on my watch up there, " she said smiling. 

"And that's where you just been? " he asked. "Didn't you ought to have a horse? I can get you one."

"As much as I appreciate the offer there's no way of me affording the upkeep."

"Well do you at least have a gun? And can you use it? " 

"I'm not devoid of all sense Arthur Morgan! " she said. "You point it at the people you hate the most and you pull the trigger. Daddy taught me back when he could. He was quite a fine shot once. "

Arthur rested his head on her shoulder and kissed her neck. 

"I missed you girl, " he mumbled into the soft skin just behind her ear. "One of the boys got a lead wrong on a job and all hell broke loose. It was a dumb ass decision to do it in the first place but no one wanted to hear that from me. So we had to move fast. Get out. I have missed you every moment. "

"I've missed you too. I wanted to tell you about this job. I wanted to see you so much. "

"Well I want to hear all you've got, " he said. "Tell me all about it. "

Katherine told him about the letter she had received, how unexpected it had been and what a compliment to be asked personally. The children were both good enough, although Sophia had a habit of day dreaming and George was overly fond of picking his nose. 

"That's boys for you, " said Arthur. "He'll grow out of it. "

"He'll have to, " Katherine said. "There's been some talk of them going to England, some family matters or something, and I doubt they'd like it very much if he did that over there. "

Arthur was quiet for moment behind her. "England? " he said. 

"I don't know. It's all Chinese whispers by the time it gets back to me. It's because I don't lodge there."

"And they'd expect you to go with them? " he asked quietly. 

"Oh I'm sure there are much finer governesses to be found in England," she said. 

"Ain't none so fine as you, " he said, pressing more kisses along her neck. She relaxed back into him and let thoughts of his mouth on her skin replace the thought of England.

She knew she was blushing something furious by the time they reached her house. And Arthur looked wound tighter than a spring. He gratefully accepted her invitation to eat with her and her father, settling down on the floor by the fire while Katherine and Mr Lane occupied the two chairs. It was something that he was getting used to, something that he yearned for and itched to make permanent. He let the simple hospitality of the evenings meal and company wash over him and ease his aching bones, his aching conscience, until the time came for him to take his leave. Katherine saw him out as usual, hoping for more kisses, her mind and body desperate to feel every inch of him while knowing that there was no opportunity for them to take their chance this evening. The denial of that need was almost a physical pain. 

Outside the house Arthur wrapped his strong arms around her. "If I had the means I'd take you and your father some place for us then the three of us would be out of here like a shot.  But I ain't got the means and if you left with me then all you'd do is end up running with a band of outlaws.  Ain't no life. 

"England may never happen for me Arthur," she said, pulling back to look at him. She held his face in her hands. "You have got me good you know. You're everything I want, everyday."

Arthur bent his forehead to meet hers and stayed like that for a heart beat or two before pulling her close, a hand to the base of her spine, the pressure of it there causing a low ache in her stomach. She arched herself forward into his touch as they shared a kiss before he left her for the night.

"I won't leave for as long as last time. I promise you that Katherine," 


	9. Chapter 9

Katherine pulled the front door open and grabbed Arthur by the arm that he had raised to knock.

"Get in," she said, pulling him to her with a broad smile.

"Woah there!" he said, taken aback by her eagerness, glancing around the room with an apology ready on his lips for Mr Lane.

"It's okay," Katherine said. "An old friend of daddy's stopped by last night. Stayed here with the promise of a saloon and whiskey and the good old days today. I don't expect him back tonight. He deserves a night away." She looked up at him, the end of the sentence unfinished and hanging in the air. 

"And you deserve it too," Arthur said, taking her hands in his and holding them, using the grip to pull her towards him, to hold her flat against him with as much touching as he could manage. 

"We deserve it," she gently corrected him, leaning up to capture his lips on a gentle kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly, gently touching his tongue to hers and reaching a hand up to caress her cheek under his rough palm. She pulled away from him lips to lean in toward his touch on her face. 

"You know I had been going to go to a gunsmiths," said Arthur. "Would've taken me another day to get here."

"Looks like you made the right choice," said Katherine, taking him by the hand and leading him up the stairs behind her. She pulled him into her bedroom, stopping to luxuriate in stolen kisses and hands skimming over one another. 

Arthur ran a hand across her breast, thumb and forefinger teasing through the fabric of her dress, frustratingly close but too far with her corset beneath it. She leaned up to catch his lips with her own and he deepened the kiss, tongue twisting with hers as he swallowed the moan she let out. He shrugged off his coat, mouth never leaving hers, undid his gunbelt and dropped it carefully to the floor.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to get you out of all these clothes," Arthur said, hands plucking at buttons and fabric. Katherine reached up to hold his hands in hers and pushed him down to sit on her bed. 

"Allow me," she said. She picked each button open, one at a time, delicately, slowly, shrugging her blouse away. She untied her skirt and stepped out of it, nudging it to one side with her foot. Arthur was unable to contain himself any longer and he reached for her, turning her and unlacing her corset, letting it fall to the floor, leaving only a thin white cotton chemise between his fingers and her skin.

"Oh I ain't staying sat here with you looking like that," he said, standing, picking up the hem of her chemise as he stood to drag it up and over her head, letting it fall to the floor. His fingers worked his shirt open, moving quickly to get his arms free of it to push his bare skin up against hers. 

"That gunsmiths has no idea what it's missing," Katherine said as she smiled into the skin of his neck. "I don't like the though of you riding around in the dark." She pulled back to look at him, framing his face in her hands, before feathering small kisses along his jaw. He hummed in resonse, caught up in what her touch was doing to him.

"Well now, my lifestyle," he said, smiling, a teasing turn to his mouth. "Do you like the thought of most of what I do?"

"Oh there's plenty that you do that I like," Katherine said. 

"Is there now? How about we explore that notion," the question not really a question at all. He let himself be pushed back down on to the bed, lifting his hips up to help Katherine get his pants off, pulling his boots off as she went. As soon as she had dropped them over the side of the bed he pulled her down to him and rolled over, pressing down, hips meeting hers. He kissed her, rolling his tongue with hers, leaving only to press a line of kisses down her neck, and across her collar bone. She trailed her hands from his waist up his back, fingers tracing over firm muscle until she reached his hair, pulling at it enough to illicit a soft hiss from him as he rewarded her with a gentle bite on the shoulder. 

He shifted his weight to one side and dropped his head to her breast, nipping at a nipple, encouraged by the moan she let out, by the arch of her back up into his mouth. His fingers skimmed over her body, dipping down to find her eager, hot and ready for him. Gently he traced small circles over her, his finger tips touching her at her most sensitive, drawing out noises of pleasure from her. 

"Come here girl," he whisper into her skin, rolling on to his back and pulling her up straddle over his lap. He linked his hands with hers, fingers intertwined. She pressed down on to him, the feeling of him hard pushed against her and she rocked over him, the feeling intense on her sensitivity and making him tilt his head back, eyes closed as he tilted his hips up to meet her motion then back down as she rocked back the other way. Together they set a slow, easy rhythm, hips rolling together, until he released her hands and gripped at her waist, quickening the motion. She felt that feeling of heat, of tingling that seemed to start in her legs and blossom out until it broke over her. She cried out at the sensation, encouraging him to meet her as he peaked, hot and wet on to his stomach beneath her. 

She took a moment to get her breath back, to let her heart beat slow it's pace to normal before she lifted up from him to lie on her side, tucked up against him, her fingers dancing across his broad chest and firm stomach. She lazily traced them and a twist of skin caught beneath her finger tips. 

"That's that scar isn't it?" Katherine asked. Arthur hummed at her by way of reply, sated and relaxed. "The one from the outhouse?"

"Oh that scar," Arthur said with a smile. "Shot in an outhouse. A tale every good gunslinger should have."

She pushed herself up on to one elbow and touched at other marks on his skin, other scars and lines. He studied her expression.  She wasn't some doe eyed girl dreaming up a romantic past for an outlaws way of living.

"How are you still alive?" She asked.

"Well sometimes I used to think maybe I wasn't.  used to think maybe this was purgatory.  But now I know it ain't because you're here. " He looked at her. "Why ain't you scared of me woman?"

"You've never given me any reason to be "

He closed the distance between them, claiming her mouth for his own, a hand to the back of her neck.

"My turn now," he said

"I don't have any scars," Katherine replied. 

"Don't mean I don't want to look." Arthur said, his fingers twisting in her hair to pull her to him for a kiss. 


	10. Chapter 10

Arthur had left again, the same pattern repeating itself in the same way that it always did. But he had stayed long enough to see Mr Lane arrive home safe and sound with a headache that looked like it would benefit from sleeping off. Katherine's days continued much the same as ever. With a heavy sigh Katherine dropped herself into a chair next to her father in front of the fire place. 

"They should let you stay there," he said to her. 

"They just don't have that much room," she said, tilting her head this way and that, rolling her shoulders and being rewarded with satisfying pops and clicks from the joints. She didn't want to voice it out loud, but she wanted to stay near to her father. Near to Arthur. And the only way that she knew how to do that was to come home to her father every evening, and to the perpetual hope of Arthur being there too. "The house keeper did give me some rashers though, left over from breakfast." 

"A letter arrived for you today," Mr Lane said, easing himself up from his chair to grope across the mantle piece in search of it. When his fingers alighted on it she allowed herself to get up and join him. Taking it from him she recognised the curves and loops of the writing immediately, just the sight of it making her stomach twist butterflies around itself, and making her heart speed up in her chest. "Is it from who I think it is?" Katherine could not help the smile that nudged up the corners of her mouth as she glanced at her father, glad that he could not see the blush that crept over her. 

"You know it is," she said quietly. 

"Well I'm not the one who's been in work all day so my dinner can wait," he said, batting her gently towards the back door of the house. "Don't you be waiting to read it on my account!"

Without needing to be told again, she opened the door and stepped out in to the encroaching evening, opening the letter as she went. Settling down on the ground with her back up against the house she scanned it over.

_My Girl,_

_I have been longer away from you than I had hoped to be. We have had to move again and I had taken on a fever which left me laid up for some time. I write that not to worry you, as I am fully recovered and with no after effects, but simply to reassure you as to why I have not visited._

_I miss you. We ain't had much calm here for a while now what with one thing and then another. Time was we was busy robbing folk who had too much, then giving it those with not enough. Fancied we was a modern day Robin Hood and his merry men. Ain't much merry here anymore._

_It is taking all of my patience and more to wait it out to see you again. Once more please give my regards to your father. I hope to be with you almost as soon as this reaches you._

_Ever yours,_

_Arthur._

Folding the letter along it's creases she tucked her knees up to her chest and let her head drop back to meet the boards of the house behind her. She could imagine him speaking the words to her. She could picture him ill and feverish but stubbornly mounting up on Lucy just to get a letter to her. And she hated the tone of the letter. He sounded brought so low, so very worn out. She raised her eyes skyward, a trick that her father had taught her when she was younger, a sure fire way to shut down that tightness in her throat and the threat of on coming tears. When the feeling passed she pushed herself up off the ground and tucked the letter away in her skirts pocket. Nothing to be done about it anyhow and she never had been one for weeping when it would achieve nothing. Dusting herself down she pushed the door open and busied herself with preparing the nights dinner. 

"The hen's laid again then?" she called out to her father, cracking the four eggs that he had brought in and left on the side for her. 

"That they did," he said, appearing from the living area to stand next to her as she worked. She had an idea that he wanted to ask about the letter but he had never been the sort of father to worry her about things like that. The silence lasted a little longer, broken by the sound of her whisking up the eggs. He was unlikely to push her and she needed to read the letter through again, to pick at it for a tone of voice, to reassure herself that Arthur was fine. 

"I'll reheat the bacon," she said. "Scramble the eggs, should go further that way. "Do we have beans left at all?" She bent to rummage through the cupboard beneath the sink. 

"I'm afraid I think I had the last can at lunch time," said Mr Lane. 

"Eggs and bacon it is then," she said, putting a smile on her voice and the bacon in a pan. 

Dinner that evening had been more than enough. It had been one of those days when the Sophia and George had picked and fussed at their lunch so she had been able to eat the left overs, and that had included the last half a glass of lemonade left in the pitcher in the children's nursery cum-school room. The addition of bacon to bring home had made it a very good day indeed until she had read about Arthur's fever. 

Mr Lane had been dozing and nodding in his chair for the last half an hour as she had written out some spelling exercises for the next day but now she found that the lamp light and the work was making her eyes heavy too. Putting her work down she gently touched her father's arm to rouse him. 

"Time for bed," she whispered, helping him to his feet and watching as he went up the stairs. Satisfied that she had head him moving around his room and then the creak of the bed as he got into it she made herself go and wash up before heading up herself. Only when she was in bed with just the light from a candle ands Arthur's letter for company did she let a few tears escape. 

*

Katherine's head was whirling as she walked home the next evening. Telegrams had been arriving at the Carter's throughout the day, and just as many had been sent back out via the post office. Obliged to spend most of her day in the school room it had taken hours for her to hear the first few whisperings and rumours. England indeed. Mr Carter had become the recipient of a sizable entail from a relative who had passed and the whole house hold was in a state of nervous excitement at the prospect of moving across the Atlantic. 

It had been late in the day when she herself had been summoned to Mr Carter's study, smoothing down her skirt and tucking wayward strands of hair back into place as she hurried to knock on his door. It had been a brief enough conversation. His wife and him, and naturally the children, she was informed, simply would not want to do without her and as a result she was to move to England with them if she wished. The wages were good, an increase on what she was earning now, not to mention a room of her own in what was to be their new home. Having had precious little contact with his deceased relative she did not begrudge Mr Carter his excitement. It sounded wonderful but all the same she had asked if she could give him her answer the next day, which he had accepted.

And so it was that she walked home, head full of hopes and worries, the potential for so much happiness and so much sadness. Leaving home meant leaving her father but it also meant a dramatic leap in the amount of money that she would be able to send him each month. Leaving home meant leaving Arthur. And leaving Arthur hurt so much that she had to forcibly turn her thoughts from it. It had always been her and her father and so that was where she would start. Yet more than anything she wished she knew how to reach Arthur. 

"It's me," she called out as she stepped up on to the small front porch. 

"Ah, there you are," Mr Lane called from the back of the house. "I'm just starting some dinner for us. How are the little nose miners today?" He walked into the living room, wiping his hands off on his trouser legs and making Katherine roll her eyes. 

"They're fine," she said. "Look, daddy, something's come up. Something big. I need to talk to you about it."

"Sounds serious," he said, moving carefully towards his chair and settling himself down. "Well sit then, tell me all about it." She did as she was bid and sat too.

"Mr Carter has come into an inheritance," she said hands folded in her lap and eyes down, taking in a deep breath and continuing before her father could interrupt. "It's an entailed estate and a lot of money," she looked up. "It's in England."

Mr Lane looked at her for a protracted moment. 

"And your job?" he asked gently. 

"Mine for the keeping. So long as I go to England."

"Mmm,"

"What are you thinking?"

"Well," he said, easing himself up and further back into his chair. "I'm thinking what exactly is it you're asking me? And I'm thinking what an amazing thing my little Katherine is about to do."

"I don't know that I _am_ about to do it. I think... well... That's what I'm asking. What should I do?"

"Okay, you tell me the facts," he said. 

"Well the money is amazing. I could send enough back to set you up well here forever. And a little to save for myself. The family want me there. But then, I won't be _here_. I won't be with you." She paused.

"And you won't be with Arthur," he finished for her. Silently she shook her head. Shuffling forward on his seat, he reached for her hands, fumbling a little as he did. "I know I'm just an old blind man but I tell you this. You don't need to be able to see to know how he's looking at you."

"Daddy he's not going to marry me," she said, squeezing her father's hands tightly. 

"You know there's something else I can see," he said. "I can see the he _would_ marry you if he could but there was no hunting accident was there." Katherine remained silent. "It's amazing what you hear when you're at the saloon and people think blind means deaf as well. Outlaw passing through town, gang somewhere nearby. I heard."

"And I should go to England well out of his way?" she asked. 

"No," he said, squeezing her hands back. "But I would bet my last dime that he is not going to take you into that lifestyle. And just so you know, I like him very much."

"I like him very much too."

Mr Lane eased himself up and stood, and holding Katherine's hands she stood with him. 

"Time I was in bed," he said. "But for what it's worth I wouldn't see you held back for one moment. Life could be about to take you somewhere amazing." He leant forward and she pushed her cheek to him as he kissed her. 

"Thank you daddy, goodnight."

*

A long wait of a few weeks pressed down on Katherine. There was always plenty to do, things to organise, items to buy, and of course teaching to be done. But Arthur remained at the back of her mind all through the days and ay the front of it all through the nights. The leap of heat and butterflies when she saw him approach, loose and easy on Lucy's back, as she walked home, were unstoppable.

"Am I pleased to see you my girl," he said, pulling Lucy to a stop and jumping down to pull her to him. She did not even consider stopping herself from reaching to his face to pull his lips to meet her own. She felt his smile on her mouth as they broke apart just enough to rest together. "Yeah, sure am pleased." 

She smiled and pressed their lips together again.

"I've been worried about you," she whispered up to him. "Your letter."

"Mmm," he rumbled the sound out and she felt it through her. "I wanted to let you know. Didn't want to to worry though."

"As if I'd do anything else," she twisted her fingers through the hair at his neck, laughing as she felt Lucy huffing hot, wet horse breath over them. "I think Lucy wants some attention."

"Aww, don't you be jealous lady," he cooed at Lucy, turning to scratch under her chin. "You're riding today," he said suddenly, grasping Katherine around the waist and hauling her up on to Lucy's back. She went up with a small shriek of surprise the she failed to keep back. "And so, attention she will get!"

Katherine reached forward for the reins and kicked Lucy into an easy walk, Arthur keeping pace beside them.

"So, what needs doing?" Arthur asked

"How do you mean?" Katherine said, the butterflies now dancing quietly against the weight of her decisions. 

"At your house I mean," he said. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Do? You can come back, eat a good dinner because I know you've been sick, and then you can kiss me once daddy is in bed. And once you've done all of that I suppose there's always some wood you can chop in the morning."

"The morning huh?" he said, looking at the ground, which she knew meant he was hiding a blush under his hat. 

"Yes the morning," she said, reaching down to pull his hat off his head and place it on her own. "Because there's no way I'm letting you go anywhere tonight."

"Are you keeping me?" Arthur said. "Is that it?" 

"Tonight I am definitely keeping you," she said. He looked up at her, squinting at the brightness of the sky behind her and nodded, a slow and small smile pulling at his lips, crinkling at the corners of his eyes. With the small house at the edge of town within sight he clicked his tongue to keep Lucy in a steady walk, and he kept hold of Katherine's hand, letting her hold the reins in the other. 

When dinner was done and Mr Lane had gone upstairs to sleep off a sudden headache Katherine was a already washing up at the sink when she felt Arthur wrap his and around her waist, linking his hands in front and leaning into her neck, pressing his lips to her skin. 

"I know I told you daddy's don't like men like me but I must be doing something right," he muttered. 

"What do you mean?" Katherine asked, moving away enough to twist her head to catch him up in a quick kiss.

"Your father's gone up to bed already, headache."

"Oh," Katherine stumbled over what to say next although Arthur had already moved away and was heading out the door. "What was that?" she called after him. 

"I said I'll chop you some firewood while you wash up," he called back to her from outside. She looked down at the sink, put her full focus into getting them done. She was no fool and neither was her father. She knew he had no such thing as a headache. But she was grateful to him for being the daddy that she needed him to be and not the one that society would have forced upon her. Webb she finished the washing up and shook the water off her hands and dried the remaining water on to her apron. The day had been warm and so Arthur had removed his shirt in the heat. Taking a moment to savour the sight of him she leant up against the door frame and watched him, taking in the movements and the strength of muscle beneath his skin. 

"It's rude to stare," he said as he brought the axe down through a log, splitting it in two. 

"Well now, what else would you have me do?" she asked with a smile, pushing up from the door frame. 

"I'd have you get over here," he said, leaning the axe up against the tree stump that he was using as a chopping block. She obliged him, meeting him and reaching up to hold his shoulders. 

"You are shameless Mr Morgan."

"Fine thing for you to say, staring at me from the doorway," 

She let her hands rub at him, drifted then down his skin towards his chest. 

"What's that?" she said, her fingers running over a patch of tightly wrinkled skin. 

"Hmm?" Arthur let out the noise as a hum, his mouth too busy placing kisses on her face. 

"That," she said, thumbing at the scar. "It's new."

"Uh that," he looked at her. "Gun shot wound that went septic."

"That how you ended up with a fever?" 

"Yeah."

"What happened?" She asked.

"Nothing good," he said quietly, pressing his forehead to hers. "There's another gang, don't like us very much. Thought it'd be fun to mess me up a bit then get the law on us. 'Cept I escaped before their lawmen showed..." he was interrupted by a shuddering intake of breath that Katherine found herself unable to prevent. "Woah, what's this?" he said, wiping at tears that were running down her cheeks. "This ain't like you my girl." She backed up a couple of places and wiped at her face with her hands. 

"It's the Carter's," she said. 

"The people you work for? They doing something to upset you?" Arthur asked.

"No! No nothing like that. It's just... I needed to tell you, to speak with you about it. Because... they're going to England like everyone thought they would," she looked at Arthur for a long moment. "And I'm to go with them, and you got hurt real bad and I don't feel safe now, " she whispered.

Without a word Arthur stepped forward and pulled her to him, held her tightly and pushed his cheek to her hair, rubbing gently back for with his head. It was a soothing motion which she sobbed along to, and to which she felt the gently muted hitches of Arthur's chest as he stood as strongly with her as he could.


End file.
